The Press: Trial Reporter on Trial

During the Charles Manson trial in the fall of 1970, Los Angeles
Herald-Examiner Reporter William T. Farr obtained and published details
from a prosecution witness's pretrial statement. The material was
sensational: it told of the Manson group's plans to murder several
celebrities (Elizabeth Taylor's eyes were to be mailed to an
ex-husband; Frank Sinatra was to be flayed alive). Trial Judge Charles
H. Older, who had previously prohibited lawyers and others involved
from giving out information on the case, decided to punish the source
of the leak. He asked Farr to identify the offender. The reporter
promptly refused, claiming immunity under...